Church to hold special service in response to ‘blasphemous’ play

Trinity Reformed Presbyterian Church in Mossley has hit back at a controversial play staged recently at Theatre at The Mill.

The church has condemned ‘The Bible: The Complete Word of God (abridged)’, which it claims makes “a mockery” of Christian beliefs.

The play went ahead at the council-run venue last month despite controversy.

Newtownabbey Borough Council’s artistic board took the decision to axe the play following complaints from some councillors and church representatives that the production was “blasphemous and offensive”.

The move sparked a furore, with the council being accused of “political censorship” and branded a “laughing stock”.

The board then voted to reinstate the show just two days before it was due to begin, with the result that it played to packed houses on both nights.

In response, the Doagh Road church is holding a guest service on Sunday, February 23, at 7pm.

It will be based on the theme ‘The Bible: The Complete Word of God (Unabridged)’.

“It’s for anyone who wants to know what the message of the Bible is really all about,” said Rev Warren Peel, minister of Trinity Reformed Presbyterian Church.

A leaflet advertising the guest service is being distributed to homes across Newtownabbey.

“Every right-thinking person understands that there are some things you just don’t laugh at. Of course we believe in freedom of speech, but aren’t there limits set by taste and decency,” Rev Peel added.

“For tens of thousands of Christians in Northern Ireland, this play ridicules what is more precious to us than anything in the world.

“So many people seem to think that Christian beliefs are trivial little things and that getting upset when they are ridiculed is as unreasonable as getting upset by the mockery of the ‘Three Little Pigs’.”

‘Such interference with freedom of speech and artistic expression should be of concern to freedom lovers everywhere’ is one of the typical responses noted by Rev Peel.

“Surely tolerance means showing respect for the views of others and not holding them up to be laughed at in a shared public space like our community theatre?”, he stated.

“But far more seriously, the Reduced Shakespeare Company haven’t just deeply offended Christians; their play is an offence against God. Just to get a few laughs they have misrepresented Him and twisted His truth; and one day they will stand before God as their Judge and answer for what they have done.

“At Trinity Reformed Presbyterian Church, we take the Bible seriously,” he said, urging a “grown-up look” at the Bible.

Meanwhile, the chairman of the council’s artistic board, Cllr Billy Webb, has hit back at criticism from Rev Brian McClung of Newtownabbey Free Presbyterian Church and DUP Cllr Robert Hill of the “tactical” decision taken by the board to cancel the play before later reinstating it.

In a letter to the Times, he said: “There are two issues arising from the article last week about the play ‘The Bible: The Complete Word of God (abridged)’ which, as chair of the Artistic Board, I must address: these are the comments made by the Rev McClung and DUP Councillor Robert Hill’s ridiculous comment that the Board is unaccountable.

Whilst I uphold Rev McClung’s right to his views, as I would expect him to uphold that right in others, I fail to understand why he takes exception to the Artistic Board decision, to withdraw the play, being described as ‘tactical’.

As it would seem Newtownabbey DUP councillors, and others, seem to be suffering from amnesia, or selective memory, I think I should point out:

(a) on the 20th January it was a DUP proposal to ban the play.

(b) on 22nd January the Artistic Board, at a pre-arranged meeting, recognised that their function of programming for the theatre was under threat from the DUP.

As this would amount to censorship, the Board agreed that ‘tactically’ the best action would be to establish control of programming and reluctantly withdraw the play.

(c) on 27th January the Artistic Board held an emergency meeting and restored the original programme.

(d) that same evening the DUP, having scored an own-goal over their attempt at censorship, ‘noted’ the Artistic Board’s decision to restore the original programme. In doing so they airbrushed their attempt at censorship and tried to deflect any responsibility for the mess they created by blaming everyone else.

In days prior to the meeting, comments on social media demonstrated their attempts to shift responsibility to Alliance, and to me, as chair of the Artistic Board.

I now turn to Councillor Hill’s comment that the Artistic Board is an ‘unaccountable body’ and remind him that: (a) the Board was established, and its function agreed, by the Council in June 2010; (b) the Leisure Committee on 4th November 2013 noted the programming for the theatre as agreed at the Artistic Board meeting on 16th October, which contained the Bible play - he and nine other DUP councillors were at the Leisure Committee meeting; (c) the minutes from the Leisure Committee were approved at the Council meeting on 25th November 2013. He and 11 other DUP Councillors were at that meeting, in fact a DUP Councillor proposed the minutes for adoption, and a DUP Councillor seconded the proposal.

Far from damaging the reputation of the theatre, as alleged by Councillor Hill, this whole incident has exposed the archaic attitude of the DUP.

Councillor Hill would be well advised to apply the maxim ‘when in a hole, stop digging’ or to comply with his party’s dictat to go to ground and avoid comment, except through the appointed spokesperson, Paul Girvan.”

This website and its associated newspaper adheres to the Independent Press Standards Organisation's Editors' Code of Practice.
If you have a complaint about editorial content which relates to inaccuracy or intrusion, then contact the
Editor by clicking here.

If you remain dissatisfied with the response provided then you can contact the IPSO by
clicking here.

Newtownabbey Times provides news, events and sport features from the Newtownabbey area. For the best up to date information relating to Newtownabbey and the surrounding areas visit us at Newtownabbey Times regularly or bookmark this page.

For you to enjoy all the features of this website Newtownabbey Times requires permission to use cookies.

Find Out More ▼

What is a Cookie?

What is a Flash Cookie?

Can I opt out of receiving Cookies?

About our Cookies

Cookies are small data files which are sent to your browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome etc) from a website you visit. They are stored on your electronic device.

This is a type of cookie which is collected by Adobe Flash media player (it is also called a Local Shared Object) - a piece of software you may already have on your electronic device to help you watch online videos and listen to podcasts.

Yes there are a number of options available, you can set your browser either to reject all cookies, to allow only "trusted" sites to set them, or to only accept them from the site you are currently on.

However, please note - if you block/delete all cookies, some features of our websites, such as remembering your login details, or the site branding for your local newspaper may not function as a result.

The types of cookies we, our ad network and technology partners use are listed below:

Revenue Science ►

A tool used by some of our advertisers to target adverts to you based on pages you have visited in the past. To opt out of this type of targeting you can visit the 'Your Online Choices' website by clicking here.

Google Ads ►

Our sites contain advertising from Google; these use cookies to ensure you get adverts relevant to you. You can tailor the type of ads you receive by visiting here or to opt out of this type of targeting you can visit the 'Your Online Choices' website by clicking here.

Digital Analytics ►

This is used to help us identify unique visitors to our websites. This data is anonymous and we cannot use this to uniquely identify individuals and their usage of the sites.

Dart for Publishers ►

This comes from our ad serving technology and is used to track how many times you have seen a particular ad on our sites, so that you don't just see one advert but an even spread. This information is not used by us for any other type of audience recording or monitoring.

ComScore ►

ComScore monitor and externally verify our site traffic data for use within the advertising industry. Any data collected is anonymous statistical data and cannot be traced back to an individual.

Local Targeting ►

Our Classified websites (Photos, Motors, Jobs and Property Today) use cookies to ensure you get the correct local newspaper branding and content when you visit them. These cookies store no personally identifiable information.

Grapeshot ►

We use Grapeshot as a contextual targeting technology, allowing us to create custom groups of stories outside out of our usual site navigation. Grapeshot stores the categories of story you have been exposed to. Their privacy policy and opt out option can be accessed here.

Subscriptions Online ►

Our partner for Newspaper subscriptions online stores data from the forms you complete in these to increase the usability of the site and enhance user experience.

Add This ►

Add This provides the social networking widget found in many of our pages. This widget gives you the tools to bookmark our websites, blog, share, tweet and email our content to a friend.